So today I decided to give Armageddon hour another go, took the High Pain Tolerance skill this time and picked another miniature to represent our hero. Almost as if mocking me, on my very first turn my pistol runs out of ammo. Making me long for my last run where I were a Marksman, and ended up rolling around in spare ammo. But taking High Pain Tolerance I do avoid or at least delay the debilitating side effects of racking up a ton of wounds.
Something else worth noticing is that I forgot a rule last time, namely that you do not spend two actions to search. You simply need to move onto the search pile, then you'll have the top card revealed, if you want to you can spend an action to pick it up, or simply leave it be and discard the card.
So first floor is a bit more of a hassle now, I cant just stand my ground and pick them off as they approach and I have to fight them off to create the breathing room I need to reload. Once I do my next shot is a natural 1, causing another misfire. So that's how its going to be today.
And with the dice being somewhat against me on floor one, I end up getting buggered down by enemies and decide to go for a quick escape after checking the first pile of loot.
Level 2 was largely forgettable this time, so forgettable in fact that I didn't take any pictures at all. But I took some scratches, looted some things, skimmed around pools of leaked acid etc etc.
By level 3 my game looked like this:
I had managed to find a Hazmat suit before running into the infected (that's good!) I had also found another ammo card which I had used to reload, as well as a really sweet Power Sword. The Power Sword is one of a few items that can hit really hard against the bosses and it can nearly kill BBB in one hit, so this is a really nice catch so early on.
Quite easily remembering how tough level 3 was last time, I have one simple plan: leg it. Maybe loot the infirmary to get the extra medical supplies, as they are already quite low. But one thing was certain, most of the infected spawn ahead of you and so does the reinforcements so you want to get moving a-quickly, and to this end I spent my grenade to clear the corridor.
Of course I was still within range and ended up loosing 4 grit from catching shrapnel. Looking back I made a few mistakes, for one if you throw a grenade from a corner or when touching a door you can shield yourself from the blast, I couldn't. Also had I waited just another turn I might have gotten a better line of sight and be able to catch more of the enemies (and less of me) in the blast. But reaching the junction was important for me to do quickly, because once you are there reinforcement will be concentrated behind you instead of in front of you, so you don't have to spend as many turns fighting through and taking rifle fire.
I ended up skipping the infirmary, but instead looting the upper left loot point in the radiation. Where I found an Electric Pistol. It is not something that is really on top of my equipment wishlist, as its use is situational, but I must admit having it on the 4th floor really was a nice help.
Not counting the one rad critter I ended up disturbing in the pool, it was a very easy crossing, and found medical supplies near the exit, so I could get healed a bit up before the following bosses. I sheathed my power sword for now, since you do want that axe to break open crates. and lo and behold, first crate contains an unstable energy cell, this proves too great a temptation and I chuck it at the mutant Gorilla.
And heyo, this one of course has to be uncooperative and scatter. Rather than using the in game chart with each number correlating to an adjacent square I went for the GW scatter dice since it is much more intuitive, and doesn't require you to look up or remember a chart.
The first few turns were honestly scary as this time BBB did not jam at all. And with him having initiative, all my missed dice could be upgraded into a barrage of aimed shots from him. My hazmat suit and high pain threshold meant I wouldn't go into a wounded stage from the otherwise severe beating I took. Finally getting into melee with my sword I missed my first hit, spending its charge for nothing and resulting in a 2 damage sucker punch from BBB. The next few turns was a scramble as I tried to get the actions to fit in a new energy cell, but I finally landed a cut, and what a cut. 5 Grit was immediately cleaved away. Also I got to use my blood counters, which I think it slightly more evocative than a simple dice.
At that point things got seriously tense, I finally reached my wounded stage, and BBB only had 1 Grit point left, all I needed was one focused hit and I would win.
And here we have me believing I won. I had equaled BBBs combat score on a melee attack, which isn't a success but an impasse, but I had sweat that detail in the moment. So most likely BBB would have followed up by taking my last hit points away with a hefty punch.
As I was packing up the game I realized those things, as well as the minor mistakes I had made. Such as throwing grenades as 1 action not 2 (priming and throwing, folks). But curiosity got the better of me and I had to check out what that unclaimed search-spot might actually contain, and oh yes a final slap in the face. The very powerful one-shot plasma pistol was there, for the taking. It might've given me the edge I needed in that final struggle.
As far as the bomb timer, the game took me some 1:30 hours, so don't worry everybody definitely died and I lost. But I think its a matter of training, for now I am just happy that I have reached the 6th floor two times in a row and actually gotten close to killing him.
Hopefully I can soon kill him off while managing to remember all the relevant rules, maybe at that point he can remember the bomb timer as well.
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